Thomas Percy (Bishop of Dromore)
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Thomas Percy (13 April 1729 – 30 September 1811) was a bishop and magazine editor. His Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1765) was the first of the great ballad collections, though he may have written some of it himself based on ballad fragments.
Quotes
[edit]- Over the mountains,
And over the waves,
Over the fountains,
And under the graves;
Over the floods that are deepest,
Which do Neptune obey;
Over the rocks that are steepest,
Love will find out the way.- "Love Will Find Out the Way"; in its published form this is suspected to have been extensively written by Percy himself; it was later used by Pierre de Beaumarchais in Act III of The Marriage of Figaro (1778).
Quotes about Thomas Percy
[edit]- I told him, that I heard Dr. Percy was writing the history of the wolf in Great-Britain. Johnson. 'The wolf, Sir! why the wolf? Why does he not write of the bear, which we had formerly? Nay, it is said we had the beaver. Or why does he not write of the grey rat, the Hanover rat, as it is called, because it is said to have come into this country about the time that the family of Hanover came? I should like to see The History of the Grey Rat, by Thomas Percy, D.D., Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty,' (laughing immoderately). Boswell. 'I am afraid a court chaplain could not decently write of the grey rat.' Johnson. 'Sir, he need not give it the name of the Hanover rat.' Thus could he indulge a luxuriant sportive imagination, when talking of a friend whom he loved and esteemed.
- James Boswell, Life of Johnson. Oxford's World Classics. Oxford University Press. 1998. p. 700. (1st edition 1791)
